


Reboot, Loading...

by SonderTaeWonder



Category: LOONA (Korea Band), 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Android Jeon Jungkook, Gen, Scientist Jo Haseul, Scientist Kim Namjoon | RM, Scientist Kim Seokjin | Jin, WARNING: This is a work in progress/test and has no update schedule
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-09-26 15:37:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20392066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonderTaeWonder/pseuds/SonderTaeWonder
Summary: Long before Seokjin was born, or before his brother or mother or father was born, there were people. They were just like him, but their knowledge was far greater; they were organized, neat, and their smarts were unmatched. They built technologies that Seokjin could only hope to replicate and surpass.But they suddenly disappeared.And now a new society is moving in, trying to pick up where they left off. But it’s not easy. Internal conflict and lack of knowledge limit their progress.Then Seokjin finds that what they need comes in a hidden away, lonely form in an observatory a mile away.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an idea I’ve had for a long while and more of a test for me than anything. So if you end up enjoying it, good! But it’s nothing super serious at the moment. I have no scheduled or even planned updates at the moment. I’ll probably write and post as I feel like it, so I suppose bookmark this if you’d like to get notifications for it this is updated.

Long before Seokjin was born, or before his brother or mother or father was born, there were people. They were just like him, but their knowledge was far greater; they were organized, neat, and their smarts were unmatched. They built technologies that Seokjin could only hope to replicate and surpass.

But they suddenly disappeared.

There are theories. Some say there was a drought and the river dried up, and the people moved away in search of a new water source. Others say they were killed off by an advanced disease. Some say other worldly creatures snatched them up.

Regardless of the answer, they left behind awe-inducing things. Temples and other buildings, carvings, various electronic tech that held on to the barest of battery life. They left behind writing as well, but every document is damaged, water blurred and ink smeared, or torn and tattered at its edges, leaving the majority of it intelligible.

So they know nothing. But the people of today use what they do know to their advantage as they try to reestablish a strong society. It’s hard. People fight and argue over the best course of action, and attempts at all different kinds of things like agriculture and medicine fail. But they’re trying, and for now, that’s all they can do.

◈

New Seoul is a small village, but at one time, it had been huge. Pictures they’d managed to uncover showed towering buildings and crowded blocks. The new village stood a little east of the original city, just out of the way of the sleeping skyscrapers and complexes, taken back by the earth. They planned to eventually take the city back, but that would have to wait until things became more stable.

Seokjin and his friends had explored the steel jungle on multiple occasions when he was younger, and still ventured in at the random. If you look past the creepiness, it’s actually kind of peaceful. 

“Hey, Hyung! Come look at this map!”

Seokjin looks away from where he’s tracing a small crack in the cement wall, looking over his shoulder. His cousin Taehyung stands on the opposite side of the room, grabbing and prying at long ivy tendrils, tearing them off of a bulletin board map.

“One of these days, you’re gonna get ahold of the wrong kind of vine and get a rash,” he drawls, turning on his heel to head over. Taehyung just flashes him a trademark box smile, eyes twinkling with mischievous innocence. 

Seokjin steps over to him, letting his eyes settle on the map. It’s large, stretched over the entire bulletin board, and it’s of three South Korea’s side by side, each section showing a different sort of map, the first being a is a political map, the middle being a physical map, and the last one showing population density. The paper itself is weathered, the writing and outlines a little fuzzy with their age, but mostly still discernible.

“Look. Look at how many people there used to be.” Taehyung points toward a spot around the middle of the population density map, where a solid colored star sits. Distorted just slightly by water stain, ‘_Seoul_’ is written in sprawling script beside it right over where New Seoul now resides. The area around the city is colored a bright red, and around the star it’s a deeper, darker shade that borders on black, signifying an incredibly high population. The mop’s information is long out of date by now, but it’s interesting to see a glimpse of what the past was like. The elder makes a noise of agreement, trailing his fingers butterfly-light over the paper.

“I wonder where they went,” a female voice trails off, wistful. Seokjin looks over his shoulder to see Haseul, one of his two assistants, wandering over to them, thin glasses perched on her nose and her eyes behind the frames peering at the map. Behind her, Namjoon, Seokjin’s other assistant and younger brother, still stands at the entrance, struggling to drag what looks like cobwebs out of his hair with a disgusted look on his face.

While Taehyung laughs, trotting over to assist Namjoon in freeing himself from the wrath of the sticky threads, Seokjin stares at the map. “Who knows,” he murmurs. “Who knows.”

Haseul doesn’t say anything to that, just rests her head on his shoulder in a show of quiet comfort, and for that Seokjin is thankful, because there really isn’t anything to say.

◈

Seokjin likes to explore.

There’s so much left behind by the past society, so many things to look at and try to dissect and understand. So, when he’s not writing in his journals, documenting what he sees around him, or experimenting with different electronic items with Haseul and Namjoon at his side, he wanders off, poking around the nearby abandoned buildings.

Right now, Seokjin stares up a hill just about a mile outside the northern side of New Seoul.

Looming over him, an observatory sits nestled in some trees, casting a shadow over his form. The building is a bit of a dirtied white on its outside, with a huge domed roof. He can only see two windows, both of which are high up and dark, and a balcony, its glass doors covered by curtains.

Pulling his satchel higher up on his shoulder, Seokjin starts the trek up the hill. In most cases, he isn’t much of the athletic type and would much rather be curled up reading a book. But the unknown calls out to him, and Seokjin always chases willingly. Thankfully, the land is thankfully mostly clear, so he has no problems scaling the incline.

The doorknob is stuck when Seokjin goes for it, but like most aged doors around here, a shove is enough to have it swinging open.

It’s hard to see inside, so Seokjin rustles through his bag until he finds his flash light, forever thankful for the limited technology they’ve managed to replicate with minimal issues.

Clicking it on, he shines the beam straight ahead on what looks like a living and dining room combined. It’s small and a little cramped, clearly meant to suit just one personal, but it’s quaint, if not a little impersonal, a lack of color, pictures, personal items of any sort clear. It looks like one of those catalogs he’s found on random occurrences in abandoned homes.

Seokjin strolled further inside, his boots on the dusty floor causing echoing footsteps. The kitchen is bland, the countertops blank and lacking anything that he hasn’t seen before. There’s also a glass cabinet full of bottles of wines that looks mildly interesting, but Seokjin doesn’t poke around there; he likes wine as much as the next person, and he’s tasted some good aged wine. But aged wine that he doesn’t know the actual age of? No thanks.

There’s a hallway leading toward where he assumes is a bedroom and bathroom, but Seokjin instead sets his sight on a staircase. He carefully tests his weight on each step as he ascends, but he gets nothing more than a couple of whiny creaks on his way up.

Upstairs is what looks like a personal office and library. Bookcases spaced out around the wall, and in the middle of a room, a couch and small book-covered end table sit on a carpet. A desk sits against the far wall, papers, pencils and pens strewn across it, an unlit lamp hovering over it.

One last trip up a staircase reveals the more interesting part of the building: a laboratory of sorts. A desk in a state that’s almost like an exact replica of the one a floor down sits against the wall, but it’s much longer, hugging the curve of the wall and accompanied by a rolling chair rather than a plain wooden one. There’s a metal panel of sorts in in front of the desk, with what seems like a keyboard and a various buttons on it. Miraculously, some of the clear buttons still blink and glow. Above all that is a blank screen. Filing cabinets and bookshelves of folders and what look like journals are scattered around on the opposite wall, and Seokjin can only blink in shock.

Then suddenly, there’s the banging sound of a door being thrown open. Seokjin startles, whipping to face a dark doorway, the door swinging a little.

“Is someone there?” he calls out the obvious, stepping back instinctively.

It’s quiet. And then, a man steps out. He’s more of a boy, truly; he looks to be maybe late into his teens, stands tall but is thin-bodied, with dark hair and the slightest of pudge still present on his cheeks. His eyes are a striking, electric blue that has Seokjin double taking.

And in a near-monotone tone, he speaks.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”


	2. Chapter 2

Seokjin stares.

“Who are you?” he questions warily.

The boy bows, a perfect ninety degrees, his face stoic as he speaks like he’s revised and repeated the words a thousand times. “I am android JK9197, codename for ‘Journal for Kindling.’ However, my creator nicknamed me Jungkook, or JK for short, should you prefer.”

Silence stretched again.

Seokjin’s flabbergasted. He’s only ever heard of androids in works of fiction and old stories. He’d never known they were _real_. Just how advanced had past society been?

“Where is your creator?”

The boy doesn’t blink. “By now, dead, I presume. He left when the rest of them did.”

“The past humans?”

“Yes.”

“Why did they leave?”

“I’m unaware. The information was withheld from me, unfortunately.”

Seokjin swallows nervously. This whole situation is odd and he’s really not sure how to process it.

The boy - android? No, boy is easier to process right now - stares at him, still uncomfortably expressionless. 

Then the corner of his lip twitches, and his lips spread into a cute smile, bunny teeth peeking out. “Your face is stupid,” he snorts, emotion finally seeping into his voice.

Seokjin nearly passes out.

◈

“So.”

“So.”

Seokjin sits at one end of the couch in the library a floor down, the boy on the other side. The boy had guided them down there, staring as he watches Seokjin try to get himself under control.

“So. You’re not... human.”

“No. That’s quite obvious, is it not?”

“Not really,” Seokjin murmurs. “You look pretty human, if not for your eyes.”

The android - Jungkook, right, _Jungkook_ blinks at him with eyes that are simultaneously lifeless and swimming with curiosity. “Point taken.”

Seokjin shifts nervously. It’s getting late, and he really doesn’t want to be out at night if his flashlight died. Plus, he’s sitting beside a creature (is that accurate?) that he hadn’t even known existed twenty four hours before. So. Yeah. Nervous.

“Why did your creator leave you behind when he left?” he asks in an attempt to fill the silence.

“I was left for a reason. I am meant to assist you.”

The human of the two frowns. “What do you mean by that?”

Jungkook tilts his head. “The past society left, and behind them they left little information. I was given one task: I am to assist the human society in rebuilding.”

Seokjin raises a brow, a bit skeptical. “And how are you to do that?”

Jungkook doesn’t seem offended by his tone. “I am programmed to essentially be a database of sorts. I have stored both information given to me by my creator, and information I have observed over time since his leaving. I can advise your decisions with my knowledge.”

Seokjin nods slowly. “So I suppose I need to take you to the village,” he mumbles to himself.

The android flinches. It’s odd how human-like he is. “I can’t!”

“...Why not?”

Jungkook frowns. “I was given clear instructions to stay inside the observatory.”

“And why is that?”

“I... I am not sure. I assume it is to prevent my battery from ever running out.”

“Your creator didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

Seokjin sighs. “And I suppose you don’t know his name, either?” he snips.

“What?” asks Jungkook.

“Your creator. You only refer to him as Sir, him or he. Did he never tell you his name?”

“Of course he did. It was Minwoo. He instructed me to call him Sir, though. He didn’t want me to become attached. I think he worried that, if anything happened to him or that when he left, I would be overwhelmed by the sadness, even with my limited emotion software, and malfunction or completely shutdown.” The boy frowns again, that small bit of available emotion put to use. “He needed me to remain working. You needed me to be working.”

“That sounds... cruel.”

“Maybe. But think about it. What mattered more? The information that needed to be passed on, or the feelings of the robot he created that only imitated life?”

Seokjin stares at him hard. “You sound bitter. I think you undermine your own humanity.”

Jungkook shrugs. “My humanity is only artificial.”

Unable to stop himself from laughing disbelievingly, Seokjin shakes his head to himself and raises it, looking the android in the eye. “Maybe. But that’s alright. My name is Seokjin. I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

Jungkook looks a little hopeful at that, and Seokjin can’t help but think his words are true. Sure, maybe the boy is made of wire and AI, but he’s real, and it’s obvious he’s got a mind of his own, and that’s as alright as can be.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! If you’d like to, comment and let me know your thoughts ♡
> 
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